[close] In the Wake of Ashes continues the saga of William Fylbrigge, which began in Lorrieann Russell's first novel, My Brother's Keeper. In the year 1607, he was an idealist and reluctant heir to the Duke of Stonehaven. A trumped up charge of witchcraft brought about his torture, trial, and apparent death¾the only proof of his innocence. Left trapped within a broken body, his memories stolen from him, William Fylbrigge seems condemned to spend the rest of his life confined to an invalid's chair, forced to live under an assumed identity. Five years later, William "Philbrick" lives peacefully in the tiny settlement of Port Edin, New France, with his wife and their young son. But peace is short-lived. In a cruel twist of fate, an innocent trek into the forest with friends goes terribly awry, and he is once again believed dead, and inadvertently left behind just as his family is called to return to Scotland. Lost, alone, and haunted by nightmarish memories of his former life, William must once again navigate a path through fire, and face again the demons of his past, to reclaim his future¾and his life. [close]